Search Engine Optimisation - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 8:16 - 1 Comment

Search Engine Optimisation Services

It is difficult for most businesses or even large companies to judge what they should be expecting from search engine optimisation services. Even if you have a marketing manager, there is still a good chance that they will be fairly in the dark about how SEO works and what results you can expect.

For this post, lets assume you have chosen a good seo company that knows what they are doing and apply there experience well for you.

If your website has not been built with search engine optimisation in mind, this should be the first thing that a search engine optimisation company should be fixing for you. There are many key areas on your website that Google uses to work out what it is your website is about. The more of these bases are covered in a professional way, the more simple it is for Google to 'respect' your website. This does not have to change the way your website feels, but some navigational changes and text changes should probably occur.

These initial changes should cause a sharp rise in rankings within a few weeks. This makes sense because Google is going from having no idea what you wanted to be found for before, to a clear understanding of your sites objectives.

For search terms with low competition, this can be enough to increase your visitor numbers already, due to first page rankings. These days however, things are more competitive so you should not expect instant results.

Along with this, there should be a dedicated link building campaign in put into place by your seo company. This can include directory linking, article marketing, social bookmarking, forum and blog marketing, press releases, paid links and so on.

All of these linking steps are helping to build the reputation of your website for what it is you want to be found for. The more quality links the better.

Depending on the amount of different phrases you want to come up on Google for, you should start to see some results within the first few months. This will probably not be for the most competitive phrases in your industry.

ou have to remember that your competitors may have years head start on your SEO company, so it is not realistic that you will pass them all within three months. Even with the most dedicated SEO effort this just might not be possible.

Remember that SEO is a long term investment. What is important in the first few months is that firstly you do see some improvement in rankings, thats for sure. You should also be able to ask questions of your seo company and get sensible answers about what is happening. They should be able to tell you what they are doing in a precise way, not in abstract answers.

By the fifth or sixth month periods, you should see the majority of your keyphrases on the first page, with some of them fighting for the top positions, unless you are in one of the most competitive industries. I think it is not a good sign if your rankings just sit around on the second page for a few months. It would make me wonder how pro active the seo company is that is handling your project. There should be some consistent movement upwards, even if it is slow.

If your rankings are very erratic in the early months, this is not a bad sign. If you were not ranked very highly, then you are page two one day, page one the next, page five after that, then page two again. This is fine for a while, at least Google is testing your site out, and is obviously visiting it often. Wobbly results like this should not continue for a long period of time though, within a month or two, the rankings should start to stick of your seo service provider is working consistently.

I think it is good to begin search engine optimisation services with a short term agreement, or even on a month to month basis. This allows you to test the water and see if you are getting any results for your money. It would be a shame to agree on a yearly deal, only to find out that the people working for you were not driven to get the results you want.

To track results well, you should have analytical software installed that tells you where your visitors are coming from, including Google organic visitors. During SEO the amount of Google organic visitors should grow, and the amount of keyphrases you are found for organically should also grow. This is a good sign that your website as a whole is becoming trusted more by Google and that inner pages are also being indexed highly.